


betting on a better thing

by bogmage



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Author is incapable of writing happy things, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Mentions of Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:50:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,226
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bogmage/pseuds/bogmage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Davesprite meets with his John, for a time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	betting on a better thing

TG: ok im in   
EB: in where?   
TG: the medium   
EB: oh, already?   
TG: what do you mean already shit took 4 goddamn hours   
EB: huh, i guess time flew by while i was doing other stuff.   
EB: how did it go?   
EB: with you and jade i guess?   
TG: i dont want to talk about it   
TG: imagine the worst day of my life  
TG: wait  
TG: this isn't right  
EB: how so?  
TG: weve done this before  
TG: and im  
TG: different  
EB: wow! you figured that out really quickly!  
TG: yeah well  
TG: timey wimey stuff is sort of my area  
TG: comes with the job  
EB: I guess so  
TG: so what  
TG: this is a dream bubble or something  
EG: yup!  
TG: okay so  
TG: there are a couple timelines out there  
TG: which one are you from  
EG: :)  
EG: i think you already know  
TG: yeah  
TG: I figured  
TG: so how does this work  
TG: do we get to like have our feelings jam in person or do we have to keep typing 

“We can do either! I think in person is probably best, though.”

Dave looks up from his phone, and when he turns around he's no longer standing alone on his roof. He's in a bedroom plastered with lame movie posters, staring at a young man in charred teal suit. 

“John,” Dave starts, but his voice sounds a little strange to him and he starts to choke up. He can't force out any more words but he can't remember what he was going to say anyway.

“Oh man, don't cry, Dave!”

“Dude, I'm not crying!” He sobs out a laugh. “Explain to me how I'm crying. Look, I'm just standing here.”

“Hehe, alright, fine! But whatever happened to that hug bump your promised me?”

“Oh man, I'm not sure we can do that, man, we're not wearing the equipment. You have to be wearing a wife-beater that is at least slightly dirty. It's the law.”

“Woah! Well, I wouldn't want to do anything unlawful. Maybe just a regular hug, then?” John holds his arms out.

Dave moves closer a bit hesitantly. He wishes he could get the hang of this dreambubble crap. Being a bright orange, floaty, uholy bird-human hybrid might make hugging a bit weird.

“Come on, loser! Or are you too...chicken?”

Dave gapes. “I can't believe you just said that.”

John laughs madly and pulled him into the hug. “I missed you, Dave.”

Dave feels his face heat up and casts around for something to say. “You're really hot.”

“Thank you, Dave. I am aware.” John smirks and lets Dave out of the hug.

“No, you asshole, I mean really. Literally.” Dave rolls his eyes. “It's like summer shoved itself inside a shitty teal suit.”

“Well, I mean, Typheus is a fire breathing monster thing. That's how I died.”

“Oh. Oh, shit, I didn't even think of that. Sorry if I'm bringing up bad memories. Or, like, have you come to terms with your death? That's a thing ghosts do, right? Hell, I bet you love being a ghost. No great strain on you. You're a living piece of science fiction. Or—shit, not living, a dead—”

“Dave.” 

“A real life—is that still offensive? A real life example of science fiction. A nonfictional scifi entity. Yeah. There. Knew we'd get there eventually.”

“Dave!”

“John. Yeah, sorry about that. But now we've gotten all the policical incorrectness out of the way. It's done. Now we can be totally inoffensive for here on. We'll be about as offensive as a kid's cartoon show. Not Ren and Stimpy though, that was a good show but they really pissed off some parents.”

“Dave, I was never offended!”

“What.”

“I wasn't upset to die! I chose to. Typheus offered me the Choice, and I chose this.”

Dave frowns. “Woah, John, you should have said something if you were feeling like—”

“Not like that! Typheus explained things to me. I knew it was a doomed timeline. Actually, he was pretty cool, as monsters go.”

“And then he fried you extra crispy for lunch?”

“Geeze, Dave, stop interrupting! Typheus gave me the Choice. He said I could live pointlessly in a doomed timeline—and die eventually—or he could kill me right then and there to give the Alpha timeline a better chance at success.”

“What. How did you getting made into charcoal give Alpha us a better chance?”

“Well, there was a chance that my death would make you go back in time to help Alpha Dave. And you did! You self-prototyped and became bird Dave!”

“'A chance?' You mean it wasn't a sure thing?”

John glances to the side and rubs his neck, sheepish. “Well, Typheus isn't exactly omnicient, but he thought there was a pretty good chance that you wouldn't continue to play in the doomed timeline until you died.”

“John, uh, you understand what it was like, right?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Rose and I, we were alone there. For months. We hated it. But I couldn't...I couldn't let you die again. I told myself the longer I stayed there, the better the Alpha timeline's chance for survival. There was never any question about going back. I blamed myself for your death. I still do. If I had tried harder to stop you, you wouldn't have—” He breaks off and rubs furiously at his eyes.

John can feel his eyes start to water. “Dave, it's not your fault! And the Alpha timeline couldn't have survived without you. Please don't blame yourself. This was our best bet. It needed to happen. Please don't...” 

Dave pulls John into another hug and it's just this side of too tight but John doesn't complain, he hugs back just as hard. They both try to comfort each other as best they can. John threads his fingers through the feathers of Dave's wings and Dave does the same to John's hair. Eventually they calm down enough to start breathing without sobbing, and they settle down on the floor facing each other. Dave's long tail bridged the gap, curling around John as if he need to keep convincing himself that John is really there in front of him. 

Dave sniffs loudly. “I did this to save you, so you wouldn't have to die twice. But this John has his own Dave to protect him. I want to stay here with you.”

Looking apologetic, John shakes his head. “They still need you—they all do. You have to go with them.”

“They'll do fine without me.”

“We can't risk it! This is really important! If they fail here, everything we've done, everything riding on them will be lost.”

Dave can sense that this conversation is almost over, he can feel himself slipping out of the dream bubble. He reached forward and takes John's hands in his, grasping desperately at the last few moments they have together. “What if going into the new universe closes you off? What if we can never see each other again?”

For a moment, John looks unsure of himself and Dave's heart thuds painfully. He puts on a confident smile that looks a little bit too fragile to be any reassurance. “Relax, Dave. I like our odds.”

And just like that, Dave is wrapped around empty space.


End file.
